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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2009
my verie good Sr, I have alredie written unto yow, how one told me upon your puttinge fa persons wordes to be Censured, that all the laitie wold forsake us, and leave us destitute of all helpe. this was not of himselfe, but he had it from beyonde the seas, for my part I shall relie upon godes providence, and wishe that everie man may be respected accordinge to his desertes. but no man I thinke can iustly blame yow for that, so many heare groundinge upon those wordes, the lawfullnes of the oath, but his frendes are angry supposinge it commeth of splenne, in which sense I cannot beleve yow wold do it. they may see as much don to mr Mush, and yet they will not say we do it of malice to him. his hoi saieth in plaine terms the oath may not be taken with any restriction: the foresaid father seameth to averre die Contrarie, whose credit yow know is greater in this Land then die credit of xx such as yow and I. who can then blame eidier of us for craving direction in that matter.
544 More had recently written to Birkhead that he ‘had given fa persons his wordes about the oath to be censured’ by the Inquisition, which caused Birkhead some anxiety, AAW A X, no. 146 (p. 411), though Edward Bennett and Robert Pett were delighted, AAW A X, no. 148, XI, no. 5. The book censured was Persons, 's Iudgment of a Catholicke English-Man, CRS 41, 122–3Google Scholar. In January 1610 Birkhead had got Geoffrey Pole (returning to Rome with More) to take one of Persons's books, presumably the Iudgment, to give to Smith, and informed Smith that an offensive passage in it, which More had previously copied out for Smith's use, was being cited by the priests in the Clink to justify their own position in favour of the oath, AAW A IX, nos 1, 7. (AAW A VIII, no. 205 is a memorandum concerning priests who had justified their taking of the oath of allegiance by citing Persons, 's IudgmentGoogle Scholar.) However there is also in AAW a memorandum (AAW A X, no. 165) received by More on 22 December 1611 (NS) entitled ‘Doctrina Patris Personii Iesuitae in libro excuso in lingua vulgari Anglicana, cui Titulus est Tractatus ad mitigandum’, i.e. Persons, 's Treatise tending to Mitigation (St Omer, 1607)Google Scholar which More may have used subsequently to bolster his case. It listed and quoted certain passages that could be taken to allow the oath of allegiance. Since there is in AAW a submission from Richard Smith dated 20 December 1611 (NS) in defence of his book against Thomas Bell (An Answer to Thomas Bels late Challeng), AAW A X, no. 164, More was probably presenting the case against Persons in context of a justification of Smith; see Letter 11. In May 1612 Birkhead said he had heard a rumour that Smith's book was ‘putt againe into the inquisition, in revenge of that which was don to fa persons’, AAW A XI, no. 82 (pp. 233–4).
545 Benjamin Norton.
546 John (Augustine) Bradshaw OSB.
547 Richard Smith.
548 Presumably Birkhead means the letter of Cuthbert Trollop to Birkhead, dated 10 October 1611, concerning the laxity of the Cassinese Benedictines in the northern counties, AAW A X, no. 130.
549 Cardinal Lawrence Bianchetti.
550 Elizabeth, widow of George Vaux. She was resident at Harrowden Hall, North-amptonshire.
551 The search was, apparently, for John Gerard SJ, who was rumoured to have returned to England. Cf. Letter 36.
552 John Percy SJ.
553 Nicholas Hart SJ. For Hart's association with the gunpowder plotters, see Hodgetts, M., ‘Shropshire Priests in 1605’, Worcestershire Recusant 47 (1986), 24–36, at p. 29Google Scholar. According to Henry More SJ, the regime had no intention of prosecuting Hart and Percy for treason, Foley I, 171.
554 Edward Bennett wrote to More on 26 December 1611 that Elizabeth Vaux had been freed because she had been ‘begged’ by Philip Herbert, first Earl of Montgomery, with whom she had evidently compounded for her offence, AAW A X, no. 166 (p. 458); McClure, , 313Google Scholar; Downshire MSS III, 180–1.Google Scholar
555 See Foster, E.R., Proceedings in Parliament 1610 (2 vols, 1966), IGoogle Scholar, passim.
556 Thomas Heath reported that these men were ‘accused by sr Stephan Procter for receaving’ John Gerard SJ ‘after proclamation’, AAW A X, no. 150 (p. 421). In April 1612 Richard Smith remarked that Heath had further informed him that three of Sir John Yorke's servants were imprisoned in the Tower and racked concerning the Gunpowder Plot and the harbouring of Gerard, though some people thought it was all on account of Yorke's words spoken against Scotsmen, AAW A XI, no. 66. (In February 1614 Procter was called in question over his accusations that Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton was not free of blame concerning the Gunpowder Plot, Downshire MSS, 351Google Scholar, allegations which were first made in 1612, CSPD 1611–1618, 147Google Scholar; McClure, , 508–9Google Scholar; Howard, C., Sir John Yorke of Nidderdale (1939)Google Scholar, passim.)
557 Gilbert Pickering of Titchmarsh.
558 John Chamberlain, who reported that John Pickering was ‘dangerously hurt’ during the search, said the honour was bestowed on 10 November 1611, McClure, , 313Google Scholar. Cf. Downshire MSS III, 180Google Scholar (John Thorys's report to William Trumbull of 13 November 1611 that Pickering jnr was ‘not dead nor the father knighted but brought into the Council, who thought it fit he should have some grace showed him to weigh down the disgrace that is wont to accompany this kind of service’). For Pickering snr's triumphant account of his ‘servyce’ and his knighthood, see BL, Additional MS 15625, fo. 3r.
559 Samuel (Bartholomew) Kennett OSB.
560 For Preston's defence of Kennett, see TD V, p. clxxiv.
561 SJ, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, Tractatus de Potestate Summi Pontificis in Rebus Temporalibus. Adversus Gulielmum Barclaium (Rome, 1610)Google Scholar, answering Barclay, , De Potestate PapatGoogle Scholar. Birkhead informed More in early 1612 that Bellarmine's book had helped to persuade John Mush to oppose the oath of allegiance more vigorously, AAW A XI, no. 25.
562 John Baptist Vives.